Recent studies have shown that certain characteristics of photosynthetic organisms can be controlled by way of application of particular wavelengths of light. Non-limiting examples of characteristics that may be controlled include, a reduction in transplantation shock, alteration in colour, alteration in taste, reduction in disease, hardiness and/or transplant shelf life. The ability to reliably reproduce desirable characteristics in a photosynthetic organism requires a high degree of control over the dose of light, or regime of light dosages, in a treatment that the photosynthetic organism is subjected to.
Current systems that may be used for providing a dose of light to a photosynthetic organism are limited in their ability to provide the necessary high degree of control over the correct wavelengths, intensity and duration of light in a dose of light or dosages in a particular treatment. Each of the attributes of wavelength, intensity and duration play a significant role in the reproducibility of desirable characteristics. Therefore systems that do not provide control over any one of these attributes is unlikely to be able to provide the necessary reproducibility of desirable photosynthetic organism characteristics that a commercial system for providing a treatment in the form of a dosage of light would require.
A further disadvantage of current systems that may be used to provide a dose of light to a photosynthetic organism is one of scale. It will be appreciated that in a laboratory environment a single fixed light array may be used to treat a small number of photosynthetic organisms to determine the effect of a particular dose of light. However, on a commercial scale the number of photosynthetic organisms requiring a light treatment may require a vastly larger light array and correspondingly a large number of light emitters. Typically light emitters that produce wavelengths of light that are outside of the standard human visible light spectrum are expensive. Therefore the cost of producing a large light array of sufficient size to make a commercial photosynthetic organism dosing system commercially viable may be cost prohibitive.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
Throughout this specification, the word “comprise”, or variations thereof such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.